Their disparate rankings aside, No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 19 Penn State should shake comparable fists at each other Saturday. Notre Dame's Brady Quinn gets the edge at quarterback over Penn State's Anthony Morelli, who will make the first road start of his career. But, draft picks aside, Notre Dame's receiving corps (highlighted by Jeff Samardzija) isn't as deep as the Deon Butler/Derrick Williams/Jordan Norwood group Penn State will bring.

And though Notre Dame's defensive line (led by end Victor Abiamiri) is more experienced, and better equipped to sustain a full-game pass rush, Jay Alford leads a redefined Penn State front seven that will make Quinn antsy.

Beyond the indefinables that define every football game (special teams, turnovers, penalties), the tipping point this weekend would seem to be Notre Dame's home-field advantage. After all, it is opening weekend in South Bend, when all the football alumni return to preserve the ground's hallowedness. Or something. It's hard to know with all this "mystique' clogging the atmosphere.

In reality, those histrionics won't make a bit of difference. And actually, they might even grind Penn State's 79-year-old coach into a new state of ornery.

In August, Paterno was asked about linebacker Dan Connor, who drew the coach's ire last year for taking part in some prank phone calls. "He's Irish, what are you going to do?" Paterno joked.

Great line. Funny, with a hint of his personality and history in tow.

"We Italians growing up on the East Side of New York had trouble with those Irish guys," the coach continued, inadvertently describing the world of college football as well. In Paterno's heyday, Notre Dame dominated all the Irish neighborhoods, from Brooklyn to Trenton, where Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis grew up.

In 1966, the year Paterno took over as head coach at Penn State, the then 9-year-old Weis was watching the Irish on TV in because, basically, they were always on. "I was a [New York] Giants fan, but the [college] game on every week was Notre Dame," Weis said this week.

Forty years and 355 victories later, Paterno is called to answer questions about that dominion and its newest lord. Weis has seduced so many fans and columnists as the football savant with four Super Bowl rings that they forget Paterno began in this business before Weis was born.

While Weis still learns the tricks of his trade, Paterno reinvents them. Last year, Weis acted like the home crowd was a distraction, not an asset, in his introduction to Notre Dame Stadium. The result? A 44-41 loss to Michigan State.

Paterno, meanwhile, hired an outside consultant last season to play a bunch of songs he didn't know and invigorate the Beaver Stadium atmosphere. The result? A crowd that darn-near underwent a personality transplant helped lift the Lions to a 17-10 victory over Ohio State.

With on-field talent and home-field advantage, Notre Dame would seem to hold the edge. Paterno's experience will balance those scales. What will tip it?

Certainly not the "mystique.' Ghosts and echoes are for shamans and charlatans. Football is immune.